Posts By Becca

Her first, in fact. Last night, December 6th 2016, the tooth fairy finally arrived at the Edge household. Only eight days shy of 7 years old, our brave first born pulled her own tooth out. She was afraid, and nervous, and worried, and excited and she did it. It had been lose since the end of August and finally at that point where it was super wiggly.

She was afraid it would hurt and panicked at the sight of the tooth and the blood but then announced it didn’t hurt at all and was quite pleased. See video below which picks up about 3 seconds after the tooth came out.

***Disclaimer: you might want to have your sound turned down for the beginning of the video.***

You’ll be pleased to hear the tooth fairy arrived without issue and Cameron was thrilled with her prize. She even found fairy dust on her pillow and window sill!

Time just doesn’t slow down. These days are wonderful but gone in a blink.

Molly is now 2 years old and has completely transformed from baby to toddler. I haven’t updated on this precious child in almost a year! Every day we see a little more of her adorable personality and fall even more in love with her. She’s a pretty perfect person to complete our little family. We are so thankful to have been blessed with her.

I wrote down notes on Molly as she grew in the last year and while they may be boring, I feel like I need to write them here so that I have them. Apologies for any repetition that came from adding bits to it every month.

I guess first things first, she started walking. She first stood up on her own “no hands” on 12-15-15 when she was almost 13 months old. That same day she took 2 steps for the first time ever. Then she began to realize that she could push a walker everywhere after she got one for Christmas. And on 12-30-15, she walked by herself across the living room. We’re not sure what happened after that but instead of continuing to walk she decided she wanted to wait and then 3 weeks later, on 1-21-16, she began to walk again at 14 months old. We think it may be that she did get sick during that time and perhaps that’s what caused the break. She had the high fever/rash from Roseola. And the rest is history.That adorable bear crawl that was so much fun for everyone was no more on 1-27-16. I really miss that little crawl.

And no surprise, Molly started talking too! It was probably around December that she started to say things like “kitty” and “doggie” and then she learned “mommy.” It was never “mama” it’s always been “mommy” and she says it perfectly clear. By mid December, I wrote in my notes that she said “mommy” for just about everything. Funny not much has changed.

At 15 months (February 2016) she was saying more words like: Mommy, Daddy, kitty, doggy, meow, horse, King, “neigh!” “Aww,” yes, yes please, shoe, night night, nana (banana or Nana!), Mimi, tree, cheese, Bay-ee (Bayley), and asking to nurse. At this time she was also getting the hang of walking- getting around all over the place. She also learned how to scoot on her little walker-turned-bike and surprisingly mastered it to the point of being able to go very fast. She loves to color and is already showing signs that she prefers to use her left hand. She reaches with it, eats with it and writes with it. Speaking of writing, she uses every opportunity to write on anything she can: desks, walls, shutters, floors, cabinet doors. More than once I’ve had to take the magic eraser to areas of the house. She seeks out ever opportunity to go outside. Her favorite foods at this time were: bananas, mac n cheese, oatmeal and strawberries. She loves to take baths and loves it even more if she can take a bath with big sisters. She can open the trash can and loves to throw things away…some things get thrown away that need to be tossed and other times I find things in the trash that don’t belong there like keys, phone, toys, shoes etc. She’s absolutely crazy about all of our pets especially the cat and is proving to be a huge horse fan. She loves to go to Char’s horse riding lessons and talk about her favorite horse, King. In February, she had a horrible case of strep plus what we think was a virus at the same time and had insanely high temps of 105.3 for days. It took two different antibiotic visits and multiple doctor/urgent care visits to get it all under control. Thanks to these experiences she learned that she hates to take medicine. 🙁 This was followed by her sisters getting it too. We’re thankful that since these early spring events we’ve had an illness free summer and fall for the most part!

By March, we noted that she was calling Cameron “boppy” and walked around saying “eat!” constantly. She makes it a point to communicate that she wants her white noise turned on for bed. She’s such an easy kid to put to sleep for naps and bedtime. She still loves to be outside and in the bathtub and has no problem screaming and throwing a fit when being removed from either. Drawing is one of her favorite activities, especially if it involves markers and walls. She’s fascinated with shoes. Her upper and lower molars started to come through in March and new words are: “Char Char”, “shoes” and “Ameron.”

By April, at 17 months old, she was saying “come here” and “hello” (hel-whoa). She can point to her nose, eyes, mouth, hair, ears, hands, feet and teeth. Her favorite song is: “Read your Bible and Pray every Day” and she makes the praying motions during it. She loves to swing and is very territorial about the swing outside saying “my swing”.

By May, at 18 months, she’s saying just about anything you ask her to..well a toddler version of it. She’s saying 1-2 word phrases. Or she just says “no” or “uh-uh” if she’s not interested in cooperating at that moment. She loves to watch Barney and Baby Signing Time. She loves the dogs and can say all of their names but is very easily annoyed by them if they get near her while she’s eating or playing with toys. The hounds in our house are known to be little thieves. She’s almost running but climbing on everything. We’re actually pretty impressed with her stability, coordination and balance. As soon as she sees an open door she heads straight for it as fast as she can. She loves to go “nigh-nigh”‘ and is still in her pack-n-play in our room until she gets to the point where she wont stay in it. New favorite foods are “sauce sauce” (applesauce) and “pop pop” (popcorn). She is showing that she’s very strong willed and has learned that when she doesn’t get her way with her sisters she just screams and they give her whatever she wants. She takes 1 nap per day for 1-2 hours typically. She loves horses, cows, sheep, monkeys, dogs, cats and birds. She can say all of these animals names and the sounds they make. She has 12 teeth. She can write her scooter bike VERY fast through the house and has mastered gliding with it.

Molly weaned herself at 19 months old. It definitely made me a little sad to know that I would never have that special time that only mom’s get again. The time I spent nursing each of my 3 girls will always be some of my most precious and sacred memories of being their mom. But, I was glad that she decided on her own when to stop and it wasn’t something she was forced to do. It was definitely a gradual process- mostly precipitated by a change in my work schedule for a few weeks. Since weaning, we can definitely say that she’s opening up more socially. And most noticeably, since weaning and gradually switching over 100% to whole milk, this baby has grown like a weed. She’s huge. She’s also developed a few GI issues since weaning that we’re still working on sorting out.

So about the only thing that has remained consistently huge is her head. 🙂 She’s always been a tall baby too but at one point she was considered to be in the 8th percentile for weight which was right when we were having so many issues with food intolerance. We’re more than thrilled to say that those issues are completely resolved and she no longer has any problems with any foods. My gut tells me she’s going to be our tallest of the three.

By 21 months, Molly is really starting to turn into a kid. She still looks like a giant 6 month old because most six month olds have more hair than she does but she’s walking around with confidence and wants to do everything the big kids do. She’s turning out to be a little bit of an introvert. She’s shy to meet people at first. She’s an observer in a social setting until she feels comfortable. She does not like to be forced to interact. At home with her family though, she’s a total ham. She plays and laughs and is silly, sweet and sassy. She fits right in with those big sisters. She knows how to push their buttons and then turns around and loves all over them. She misses them when she’s not with them. And I’m pretty sure they miss her too. She just learned to growl and laughs hysterically if we pretend to be scared when she does it. She absolutely REFUSES to cooperate for any picture taking. She starting preschool for the first time. She loves to help at home. She feeds the dogs and enjoys “helping” with the laundry. Every now and then she will give a little dance when she hears music. She demands diaper changes and truthfully, if she wasn’t so stubborn, I think she could be nearing the point where she could potty train. She’s very aware of what’s going on in that area. She doesn’t have a huge interest in the television but she has learned how to navigate the iPad. She loves to watch nursery rhymes, cat videos, horse videos and videos with super heroes. She loves to snuggle. She loves to be held. She loves reassurance from mommy and daddy.

By 23 months, Molly is talking a lot more. She is singing songs and saying 3-4 word sentences. She speaks in 3rd person still by saying things like “Mo-weee (Molly) ride bike” “Mo-wee eat sauce sause (applesauce).” She can attempt to say just about any word you ask her to say and I think she does a great job at pronunciation. She can count by herself to 13! She likes to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” “Daddy Finger Daddy Finger, where are you?” “Happy Birthday,” “ABC’s” (she doesn’t get all of the letters). She is recognizing most animals and starting to recognize people and their names. She is particularly fond of some of the neighborhood kids on our street. Her favorite animals are horses (Horse-Nay), cats, and foxes. She also loves anything lizard-like because it reminds her of our sweet Solo & Leia (our geckos). She likes to help around the house and finds laundry to be quite fun. She can point out who every piece of clothing belongs to, just like her big sisters did when they were that age. We haven’t transitioned her to her own room yet, though it’s definitely coming soon. This month brought a switch away from regular milk to lactose free milk due to some digestion issues and she seems to be already doing so much better.

At Molly’s two year check up she blew us away with her growth.

Molly is 36.3 inches tall which is the 98th percentile.
Molly weighs 29.4 pounds which is the 73rd percentile.
Molly’s head circumference is in the 93rd percentile.

She sprouted up and is no doubt our biggest of the 3 at this age.

By age 2, she’s saying even more words and we’re finding it’s much easier to communicate with her. She can tell us exactly what she wants. She’s putting together 3 and 4 word sentences. She has stopped referring to herself in 3rd person and now says “I” and “Me” and “Mine” rather than “Molly do it” or “Molly’s food,” “I want to hold it,” “I see a horse mommy!” She has little quirks just like her sisters did. She doesn’t like to be barefoot; she’d rather have shoes on at all times. She doesn’t like when pants or leggings ride up her leg like capri pants. She says “LEGS!” and that means she wants them pulled down. This is particularly a problem for night time because so many of her jammies are too short for her. She also demands covers on her the whole time she sleeps. Just like her parents, she likes the covers all the way up to her neck and to be cuddling a stuffed animal (usually a fox or a horse). She’s a side sleeper. She sleeps very well and still takes long naps. Mommy and Daddy haven’t been able to find the courage to let her sleep in her room yet. And she’s happy with that. Her room is the furthest from ours and I’m not sure I’ll be ready to move her there for a while. She occasionally asks for snuggles with us before bedtime or nap time but she really sleeps much better by herself. I’ve found when she moves to our bed she tosses and turns and nobody sleeps well.

She has many songs that she loves to sing and I really think she picks them up quickly. This includes Cameron’s memory verse and Latin practice songs. She even knows a few Christmas carols. She counted to 20 on her birthday and can make her way pretty well through the alphabet. She’s a book worm and will sit through book after book as long as there’s fun pictures to go with it. She knows just about any animal you can think of and likes to ask us to draw things for her. She knows shapes (diamond, circle, triangle, heart, star) and practices colors any time she can. She knows what a color is but is still working on distinguishing them.

Another new love is the movie Frozen. I could hardly believe it when she sat through almost the entire movie the first time because she’s never showed much of an interest in TV. She was introduced to the movie because of the big girls’ Halloween costumes and we think she’s drawn to the music in it. If there was ever a Disney movie to love, though, Frozen is it. It has such a great message of love between sisters.

I’ve been blown away by the progress she’s made socially in just 3 months of school twice a week. She’s doing so well. She used to cry and scream and I’d have to hide so that she wouldn’t see me while she was at school. Now she sees me and says, “Hi mommy!” and then keeps on playing with friends. She loves her teachers and her friends and can name them all. She even knows several of Cameron & Charlotte’s friends. They all love to come hug on sweet Molly. Big sisters are so proud.

We’re so blessed to have this precious baby in our lives. She’s such a perfect completion to our family. Above is a collage of her 2 year old pictures. Horse themed of course. And a few pictures from her horse themed family party. She had a great time.

Our sweet Char Berry Shortcake is five. It feels like just yesterday this sweet girl joined our family. She has so much joy and personality bottled up into her tiny little body- we’re so blessed to be her parents.

She weighs 38.8 pounds which is 41st percentile.
She is 42.5 inches tall which is 47th percentile.

Our sweet girl is right where she needs to be on the growth charts and received a perfect bill of health from the pediatrician. What a blessing! The only vaccination she received at her checkup was the flu shot. And it was x3…lots of drama that visit.

Charlotte has grown into a gentle, smart and inquisitive girl. Struggles that we faced in the previous years are starting to disappear as she gets older but there’s no doubt she full of energy and life. Being a September birthday, and being a homeschool family, we were faced with the decision to start Charlotte in Kindergarten this year or continue with another year of Pre-K and pick up with Kindergarten next year. We opted for Pre-K for many reasons, but most importantly for confidence. She’s shy and reserved in some settings and we felt like if she had another year to grow, mature and enjoy the pre-k setting she would thrive in Kinder. So far, she’s proven that we’ve made the right choice.

To meet her desires to learn new things, we’ve started a level appropriate reading program with her and she’s doing kindergarten math. She also likes to learn all of the other things that Cameron is learning in 1st grade. Charlotte shocked us all when she picked up a book at 4.5 years old and started reading it. I had no idea she even knew all the letter sounds and could piece them together. It was not something we really approached with Cam until she as nearly 6. Charlotte soon desired more and more challenges and learning material and I learned what a joy it was for her when she conquered something. Being the second born, and now a middle child, she’s had to watch Cameron do everything first and have so many successes. Now it was her time to shine alongside her sister. And boy did she blow us away. She is breezing through kindergarten math and memorizing things all the time. I am really so proud of this girl.

Charlotte is our free spirit. But she’s also shy and reserved. When given the chance to let go, she loves to sing and dance and be her smiley and silly self. But I’ve also noticed that she feels embarrassed sometimes if you call too much attention to her when she does this. She’s still our girliest girl. She loves dresses and shoes and makeup and fancy hair. Because of this, we decided to take Charlotte’s birthday pictures at the beach this year. We rented a beautiful dress for her and let her dance away while the sun set on the beach. I love how they turned out.

This summer our sweet girl learned how to swim. She learned to dress herself. She learned how to use a computer. She learned the magic of playing barbies. And she learned what it means to be a great big sister. She’s so good to Molly. She’s tolerant and kind and loving. Even when Molly is not.

When Charlotte turned 5, she began to think about things like death and the life beyond. A few weeks ago, she came to me very solemnly with some serious questions. She had some dreams that had confused her, frightened her and caused her to worry. I had never seen this side of her. I learned in this conversation how thoughtful my sweet girl is. How inquisitive she is. And that there’s no doubt she’s smarter than I had ever realized before. Her worries were eased for the time being but I know that growing up will bring more and more questions. I hope she always feels comfortable to come to daddy and me with these questions and worries. I remember the burning stomach pains of childhood worry. Fear without understanding. Her big sister is a worrier just like me and we’re constantly battling to convince her she needs to enjoy her childhood and not worry about things out of our control.

She had a very healthy year. Only a case of strep and flu early on and then an ear infection over the summer. No teeth have been lost yet but she did experience her first cavity and filling. Seeing Charlotte on laughing gas was pretty darn funny. We feel blessed that none of the children have suffered any serious illnesses or injury. We are praying for yet another year of health for these girls.

One of the greatest joys is seeing this girl with her sisters. They love each other fiercely and have each others’ backs. Even if they do fight sometimes. Nothing is more comforting as a mother than to know that when I’m gone, my children will have each other. I pray they will remain healthy and safe and hold each other close.

Charlotte began taking horseback riding lessons last January which made her so happy. She progressed quickly and loved every minute. Then in July, her instructor had to quit because her husband was being deployed overseas and we have struggled since then to find an instructor and lessons that fit in the budget (they doubled in price when she turned 5). Her love of horses is not lost, however. She remembers riding and says she misses King, the horse she primarily rode. I hope that we can get her back on a horse again soon. If not, she says she might like to try rock climbing. 🙂

Our Charlotte is no doubt the peanut butter and jelly of our family sandwich. She’s fun and full of flavor- definitely the best part of the sandwich. She’s so special to us. Her soul is good and her heart is kind. We love her dearly.

September was another great month in our household. We celebrated Charlotte’s 5th birthday and continued to adjust to our new routine at school. The weather started to cool off, Cameron moved to her own room and we enjoyed our first school field trip at Dewberry Farms.